My last early morning...tried I have when I could.
Work has me very busy but still trying to find that buck.
Made the decision to hold onto doe tag until late season I figure I will have more time then of course I ALWAYS have time to deal with a buck but I humbly admit I aint seen a good one in the crosshairs for 2 years I knew that 6 year run of getting a buck was guna come with a cost.
Better get ready last day of the madness is about to begin good luck to anyone going out!!!WCW

I cannot recall the last time I was out on the last day of gun season (I’m sure I was, but it was probably a long time ago, before I discovered good excuses not to go, and it was in some type of unarmed capacity commonly known as “dog”). Yet here I am, snug as a 22 degree bug well before the butt crack of dawn, in the camo outhouse blind watching a wood edge.

I don’t “need” another deer, the crossbow buck filled what we like to consume venison-wise (not that it would go to waste in the least). But here I’m out here with the intent to do grievous bodily harm to an antlerless deer. I guess that I am subscribing to the Pink Floyd thought that each passing day is just “one day closer to death” and the number of seasons ahead is finite.

It has been an odd season thus far. After harvesting (killing, whatever (that was for Dr.Trout))) a buck in archery, I have been attempting to get an antlerless deer (although it cannot be our prolithic breeder “Big Mamma” or her triplets) with zero success.

I hunted four more times in archery and saw three bucks, but no does. The only deer I have seen in gun season (hunting T, T, F, S, T, T, F evenings) were five does and an uncountable buck that appeared in the south neighbor’s cut corn field a few minutes before the end of shooting hours that were highlighted by the almost full moon.

I know I would be better off in the treehouse in the creek bottom this morning, but yesterday the south neighbor’s farm hands over ran the bottom and I suspect with the desperation samba of the last day kicking in, they will be there en mass again today. I can’t deal well with people fishing in my hip pocket, left alone folks toting centerfire rifles.

It will be light soon, so good luck to all.

OH BOY!!!!  Round two coming up..... second season archery, just around the corner!  
 
Since Monday past I've seen 9 doe, though I believe some may be one and the same but late yesterday afternoon, just after sunset I thought I might be one of the lucky hunters who fill their buck tag, with a 11th hour kill.   Spotted the critter as he strutted his stuff coming from the west and better than a hundred yards to my south (from gustements of walking the field, so many times, in days of past).  Stepping down three rungs of my ladder stand, elbow resting on the seat, trusty 30/30 leveled across an open hand while following his every footstep through the scope.  Antlers were visible with no doubt but the distance and remaining light, would not permit a count of 3 points up.  I continued to follow through the scope, hoping the deer would turn my way, as the last of his tail disappeared into woods.  Not giving up on a chance for a last minute buck, I returned to a sitting position at the top of my stand.  Nothing to do now but hope, the buck would follow the trails and come out where I'd seen Doe in the past days.  Sitting ever so still, moving only my eyes, I catch movement to my right then again and again, as several deer enter the field, right where the buck went in.  Six Doe all total with two romping and kicking like nothing could be the matter, back into the woods and back into the field they would go.  I watched as the last rays of daylight brought to a close, another exciting chapter of hunting the stupid elusive Pennsylvania White Tailed Deer. 
 
But all's not a loss 'cause second season archery will find me once again, swinging my feet while sitting in and dressed, like the tree.  Perhaps by then, the sub-legal bucks will all have lost their horns so "I can now" choot-em, without recourse...... 'toopid AR's.

I put about 43 hours in the stand this rifle season. Total deer numbers was 253 deer seen dureing those days and I did not double count deer that I knew where the same each day. 23 were buck all the buck were 1.5 YO and the legal I choose not to shoot.

So likely there were in the ball park of at least 50 different deer I seen.

Our property had 8 deer harvested so far. The neighbor told me they shot 8 buck all 2.5 or older with some giants in the mix. So our management practices must be working.

Great year so far, second archery will be here soon. Good luck everyone be safe and stay warm

So, in other words, with the right amount of property and labor intensive management practices, the deer hunting experience can almost be like everyone experienced before AR/HR.

when you make assumptions and cherry pick from my statement, then I can see your comparison. Keep belly aching your gaining ground.

Other than that thank you for the kind words. I’m sure there was something positive in there...

You always have wonderful deer seasons.

anzomcik
when you make assumptions and cherry pick from my statement, then I can see your comparison. Keep belly aching your gaining ground.

Other than that thank you for the kind words. I’m sure there was something positive in there...

There were no assumptions, no cherry picking, and no belly aching whatsoever. It was a simple statement of factual observation. And it was very complimentary as well.

You were successful, through your own hard work and non PGC management practices, to almost recreate what deer hunting used to be like and should be like in PA.

When what you experienced gains another 20% or so, then you will know what it was like to hunt deer in PA in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s for the average hunter.

Ok so saying a "labor intensive management practice" is factual? You dont know that to be factual, its an assumption. You dont even know me or where i live how can that be true?
 
saying everyone experieced my season back in the day is also an assumption, you dont have a clue what the different areas of PA had going.
 
Seeing 253 deer with 23 bucks did not happen back in the day, you cherry picked the total number but dropped the number of antlered deer to fit your narrative. 
 
Also back in the day 12 hunters on two properties did not shoot 10 buck with 9 being 2.5 YO or older and of those 3 over 120".
 
The picture you paint from hunting 47 years ago sounds incredible, if it was so great why did it change? With all the praise of the old time I wish it would go back to then as well, it was the utopia of deer hunting. 

No longer about "deer hunting" in PA.  IMO, it's now about "deer bragging".   Oh, we had our bragging in yesteryear when a hunter spent not hours in the woods but years in the woods, in pursuit of his ever elusive White Tailed Trophy.   Hours were spent, months before deer season, scouting and planning in hopes of putting a 'hat rack' on the wall.  Small game hunting, beginning with squirrel and grouse would include a watchful eye for deer activity.  Then, spotlighting was actually a family past time when all would pile into the car and off to the field and forest we would go.  How many yinz remember the new, most powerful spot light in America, "The Pan Light"?  Originally a aircraft landing light tapped (thank goodness for electricians tape) into a small cooking pan... priceless and, just about every hunter with a car, had one.
 
We still have that past time except we now have regulations specifically geared toward spot lighting and with spotlights so bright, ya can spot into the next county and I'm not sure to what extent, it still may be considered a family activity. 
 
The new wave is  field-cams and field-cams there are, all shapes; sizes and; colors capable of 24/7 352 day operation recording, time; date; temperature; moon phase; color picture; B & W picture; video; with sound; split second reload; taking pictures every second or less; all for slightly more than the cost of a "Pan Light".  Least not forget, for those rugged hunters who take their pre-season and season scouting very serious, the wi-fi capable cams allowing one to sit in the comfort of their home while scouting for their next 'hat rack' to hang on the wall.
 
I think of the good ole days when "buck pools" were the places to see the trophy buck (or Polaroid pictures) and hear the story, as told by the hunter now holding the bragging rights and, sometimes a tidy sum of cash.  The winner was usually determined by the number of points with a tie being shared or broken, by the perfection of the rack.  Rarely did a tie occur that couldn't be broken fairly, just by comparison.
 
Today, in the minds of many, one must meet the requirements as established by 'Pope & Young' or 'Boone & Crockett' before one can claim a legitimate "trophy".  To each his own I suppose, when ones trophy of a lifetime gets tied or beaten out by a first year hunter, who can't legally carry a gun.   
 
So maybe the AR's are working and somewhere in PA there truly is "a trophy behind every tree" after all there are those (now digital) pictures.
 
Finally, I should like to ask, what is a "true trophy" regarding the elusive Pennsylvania White Tailed Deer and is it more about 'hunting' or is it just about 'bragging'?